I am using a number of Adobe programs on my new Windows 8 64 bit system, with 16 gigs of ram, an Intel Core i5 2.67ghz, and AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 gig. All the programs (including After Effects and Illustrator) work very well with the exception of Photoshop CS6 64 bit, which has extremely slow performance with Use Graphics Processor enabled in my preferences (which Photoshop selects by default). If I turn off Use Graphics Processor, the slow performance vanishes. If I change Drawing Mode to Basic, there might be a slightly detectable improvement over Normal and Advanced, but it's still horribly slow. The refresh rate seems to be just a few frames per second. Everything is slow: brushes, zooming, panning, everything.

I've tried changing the settings I've seen suggested elsewhere: I switched Cache levels to 2, history states to 10, and tile size to 128k. No effect. Photoshop is currently at the default of using 60% of available ram. Efficiency has remained at 100% throughout all my tests. Also, this slow performance has affected me from the moment I installed Photoshop; it didn't crop up after previous good performance. The problem exists regardless of the size or number of documents I have open. Performance is still terrible even when I create a 500 x 500 pixel blank new canvas and try a simple task like drawing with the brush.

Photoshop is fully up to date, and so are my graphics drivers (Catalyst version 13.1). Any help would be greatly appreciated; at the moment performance is so bad in Photoshop that it's unusable with graphics acceleration enabled. Thanks in advance for replying.

I got the card in late November. Certainly I have had absolutely no trouble with it with any other software, including any other Adobe stuff (as I mentioned, After Effects, Illustrator, Flash Pro, etc, all work fabulously -- but of course Photoshop is using the GPU a little differently). Autodesk Maya works especially well. Unfortunately I gave my older card away, so I don't have the ability to test it. I installed this card at the same time I overhauled my rig, adding memory, switching to Win8 64, and upgrading from Creative Suite CS4, so quite a lot all changed simultaneously.

The fact that all of you seem a little baffled suggests to me that it could be some crazy esoteric combination of the drivers, Windows 8, and my particular iteration of the Radeon 7800 series that's producing some heretofore unheard-of quirk. I hope Adobe makes note of this issue so it can go into the next patch list. In the meantime, perhaps I'll run it by AMD and see if that gets results. If I learn anything, I'll post it here for everyone's benefit.

Thanks for your replies. If anybody can think of something else to sugget, I'd be grateful.

This problem is still unresolved, and I've been exploring it a bit more, so I thought I'd mention the changes here, just to keep this alive in the hopes that any additional info might lead to a lightbulb going off with one of you.

First off, Photoshop updated this morning, to version 13.1.2 (13.1.2 20130105.r.224 2013/01/05:23:00:00) x64 (as reported by system info). In case it matters, this is Photoshop CS6 Extended for Creative Cloud. The update didn't affect the problem.

I've played quite a bit with the different video settings in the Preferences. None of them seem to affect the problem at all, EXCEPT for Drawing Mode (in the Advanced settings dialog under the Graphics Processor Settings). If I switch Drawing Mode to BASIC, then there is a noticeable improvement in performance, though it is still laggy and far worse than if I switch off Use Graphics Processor altogether (Normal and Advanced Drawing Modes seem to be identically horrible). The brush tool, for instance, refreshes noticeably more quickly, but it's still choppy and lags behind the cursor. Zooming and panning is definitely improved, but still bad.

I guess this suggests that it's either an OpenGL feature issue, or an issue with the way Photoshop is using my vram. Because I can't find a single other mention of this problem on the Net, I also assume it's some weird problem that only arises with my unique combination of hardware and software. Given the youth of Windows 8, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Win8 has something to do with it.

Anyway, I don't know if it provides any insight or clues, but I thought I'd mention that setting Drawing Mode to Basic does have an effect on the problem, though it still gives me poor performance.

Perhaps it would be prudent to create a very controlled environment to gauge whether you're seeing something quite different than what others are seeing.

It's possible, for example, that you're trying to paint with a 5000 pixel soft brush on a 20000 x 20000 canvas or something, which is slow for everyone.

For example, if I create a 10000 x 10000 pixel, 8 bits/channel RGB image (white), and paint on it with a Soft Round 1000 pixel brush at 0% hardness and 10% spacing, I can get a little ahead of the painting operation, but it's not bad. I see the screen update with brush info about 5 times per second.

How does what you're seeing compare with that?

What video card did you have before you updated to your current one? Did you do anything special to clear out any remnants of older drivers?

The problem seems to occur regardless of the size of the document or any setting. Also, I have tried the problem immediately after deleting the preferences, so most of the test I do are with everything at the original defaults set by Photoshop.

Referring to a controlled environment like you suggest makes a lot of sense, so here's what I have used each time to test performance: upon resetting preferences, I create a new blank document using the Default Photoshop Size preset (504x360 pixels, 8-bit colour). The brush that I then use to test the screen draw is also the Photoshop default: a 13-pixel soft edge brush with hardness of 0%.

So you can see that the document size and settings I'm working with are ridiculously modest compared to what you're referring to. Just to point out, efficiency never dips below 100% and I'm giving Photoshop 60% of my 16 gigabytes of ram.

With graphics acceleration on and Drawing Mode set to Normal or Advanced, refresh is so slow that it's well under five frames a second, and updates considerably far behind where my cursor is. Even more disturbingly, zooming and panning the canvas is horrendously slow, pretty much as bad as the drawing tool. On Basic Drawing Mode, things are improved (most particularly zooming and panning), but still poor, though nothing to compare to how bad things are at Basic/Advanced.

I did a big hardware/software upgrade in November. I wiped my drives, installed new memory and this new video card, and then did a clean install of Win 8 Pro 64-bit from scratch then and there, so this is the only video card that has ever been present on this system. Also, I didn't have Photoshop CS6 prior to this upgrade. Before that, I had Photoshop CS4, on a Windows XP 32-bit system with an Nvidia Gefore 9600GT. So much changed at that one point in November that it's essentially like having an entirely new computer. I didn't start using Photoshop immediately after the new system install, but this problem has been present since working with Photoshop CS6 on this system.

Wow, that's not just bad, it's horrendously bad! You clearly have a major problem there, though I can't think what it could be... Even a computer from the last millenium could paint on a 504 x 360 pixel image with a 13 pixel brush in real time.

Do you see any improvement whatsoever if you disable the [ ] Use Graphics Processor setting entirely (then restart Photoshop)?

I wonder if somehow there could be a component in the GPU that's bad and that only Photoshop is trying to exercise.

I might try removing Photoshop entirely and reinstalling it, though I don't think there's any justification for doing that.

Yes, if I turn off Use Graphics Processor and restart Photoshop, the issue completely disappears. All activity such as drawing and zooming and panning are lightning fast. If I turn back on Use Graphics Processor but set Drawing Mode to Basic, performance is poor. If I set Drawing Mode to Normal or Advanced, it's horrific.

I did wonder if there was some glitch or flaw in my particular card, but unfortunately I have no way of testing that question without getting my hands on another copy of my card, which alas I can't do. I did run some benchmark suites that test OpenGL performance and the results are issue-free, and very good. I used GpuTest, which runs tests with OpenGL 3.2, 3.3, and 4.0 features, and the performance score I received was higher than an Nvidia GTX 680 as tested on a system with a slightly better CPU. I also used Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 in OpenGL 4.0 mode, and it also produced a good score without reporting errors. I'm also using Autodesk Maya 2013 on my system, which I think is using OpenGL, and the performance is exceptionally good.

These tests aren't conclusive, of course -- it's entirely possible they're not trying to access an OpenGL feature that Photoshop is. I can't prove that there isn't a defect in my card, but given the performance and results in all the other apps and games (both DirectX and OpenGL-based), I think it's pretty unlikely.

Adobe Customer Support suggested I uninstall and reinstall both Photoshop and my video card drivers. I did both, and unfortunately it didn't help anything. Ironically, they haven't updated my case since I responded that reinstalling PS and the drivers was unhelpful. Oh, well.

It is curious that it does not recognize the model number, just the series. Beleive it should say HD 7870 rather than 7800 series. It also does not list video card driver. The Micorsoft Basic Render Driver is listed, but I have seen this before in other users printout, but forgot what it means, perhaps that ATI driver has crashed. Don't see that on my list.

Bring this up as maybe someone smarter in computer stuff (like Noel) might get a clue as to what is going on.

In my case, not only Photoshop lists my video card by the series, "AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series", but so does the Catalyst Control Center as well as Windows Device Manager. Unless I'm very mistaken, AMD now groups some cards into series, such as in my case, with the 7800 series. I'm pretty sure that in my particular case, listing my card as part of the series is actually correct, because that's how the AMD drivers work for my card generation.

On the other hand, those Microsoft Basic Render Driver entries strike me as odd, as you pointed out. What are they all about? Shouldn't my card and its drivers be the only video-related info in the system info?

I'm running Catalyst 12.8 drivers at the moment, and have a Windows 7 system, and have a remote access utility called Radmin installed, but I don't know whether seeing that Microsoft Basic Render Driver is expected on Windows 8. It sounds like this could be the key, as Microsoft's basic OpenGL implementation is done all in software. If somehow Microsoft's driver has taken over control and you're not really getting GPU acceleration, then that surely would make things really slow.

Rafaello, you've updated drivers... Can you post your top section of your system info again?

Have you tried a full, complete ATI driver removal then reinstall from e.g., 13.2 beta? Here's the ATI removal tool:

I followed your suggestion, Noel, and uninstalled my drivers with the Catalyst Uninstall Utility (which I hadn't used before), rebooted, reinstalled Catalyst 13.2 Beta 7, rebooted, deleted the PS Prefs, started PS, and now the performance is radically improved!

It baffles me why I would need to do a clean driver uninstall in a new system environment that has only ever had this video card, and is only a few months old, but that action seems to be what's improved the situation. Note that because I deleted the PS preferences, the good performance now occurs with the default Use Graphics Processor enabled, and Drawing Mode set to Advanced (with every feature in the Advanced dialog checked except 30bit display).

Having no reference point, I can't tell for sure if performance is as good as it theoretically ought to be for my system specs, but using the standard 13px brush is only slightly laggy behind the cursor, even if I become reckless and squiggle on the canvas violently. It wasn't just sluggish response before: Photoshop seemed to be in pain trying to draw the line segments as it laboured to catch up to the cursor. That is pretty much gone now.

Much more tellingly, zooming and panning the canvas is like it ought to be, responsive and clean, more or less like it was for me in CS4 with my old Nvidia 9600GT. The poor performance with zooming and panning was the most worrying aspect of the issue. It's a great relief to see these working more properly now.

I have to confess I'm a little embarrassed to have drug you through all this hassle only to discover that something as rudimentary as properly cleaning out the drivers would be the apparent solution. I never would have imagined that doing that, with such a new and stable system, would make any difference, since I don't have a legacy of older drivers dotting my hard drive. In any event, I'm really grateful that you guys took the time to try to help me.

In the interest of completeness, here's the relevant portion of my system info after doing the reinstall steps I mentioned above:

As you can see, the Microsoft Basic Render Driver still appears as a Video Card in the list. This presumably has something to do with Windows 8, and I really don't know if its presence here is still a sign that my card is not being used to its optimal capability. I have a hunch that the slight lag that I am still experiencing with the brush when Use Graphics Processor is on -- totally absent with the acceleration turned off -- implies that Photoshop is still unable to take maximum advantage of my card. I would assume that the brush tool should be more responsive with acceleration on than off, in a rig without any issues, but that's just assumption on my part. If you turn off Use Graphics Processor on your systems, is the brush tool more or less responsive?

But again, panning the canvas with the hand tool is now extremely responsive, without any screen tearing or visible lag, and that's a massive improvement over the total meltdown of performance I was suffering from before.

Thanks again very much for your help. I'm grateful to all of you who took the time to chime in.

That's good news, and I'm happy you've got an improvement in performance though that remaining lag you mention still troubles me some. I don't see any lag at anything less than gargantuan brush sizes, and it's certainly no more responsive with the GPU turned off (my card is a 7850, not far from what you've got).

If you'd like to try to nail down even the remaining lag, can you be more specific about just how you're seeing it, and guess at how much it is? Describe which brush, what size/depth of document, etc. as you did before.

-Noel

P.S., I think the ATI driver installers (and uninstallers) aren't as good as they could be, which is why AMD published a separate tool for cleaning up.

FYI, with a 15 px cursor on a 500x500px document, and painting quickly I can see the cursor get a little ahead of the line drawn, but it keeps up and makes smooth strokes, keeping up with my movements no matter how fast I squiggle around. I didn't even notice it before because I hadn't looked for it.

That's actually really helpful to see, thanks. As I draw the brush, Photoshop smoothly updates it and does keep up with my brush, even when I get crazy, but it's actually a bit behind the cursor, just as you report. In fact, given what you're describing, and your screenshot, it sounds like my performance is comparable to your own. That's a great relief to me.

Since I run these tests usually right after resetting my preferences, I just go with the default Photoshop size new document (504x360 pixels), and the default brush of 13 pixels, soft edged.

I've tried larger sizes, and larger brushes, and this doesn't seem to impact the current improved performance (or the performance when it was really bad, either, for that matter).

I just tried to also take a screenshot as I drew just as you did, so you could see how it's working on my end, but for some reason the cursor is not appearing in the captures. Are you using a program to capture the screen, or just the default Windows PrintScreen command?

I did some screenshots with Irfanview and I couldn't produce anything very obvious -- the brush was always either right up against the cursor or only a little behind, not even worth uploading.

Thanks again very much for your help, Noel. I don't know if you had any intention that it would actually solve the problem, but your suggestion that I used the Catalyst Uninstall Tool was the step that did the trick, so thanks for that!

Do NOT run the AMD Cleanup Utility if you're on Windows 8! Although running the utility did solve my problem as I mentioned previously, I just discovered a few days ago that running the cleanup utility damaged my registry and ruined my user account, removing my administrator privileges and making it impossible for me to do anything that required administrator privileges. I was forced to run Windows Refresh to fix the problem (which necessitated reinstalling all my desktop apps).

I didn't discover the problem for a while, however when I did discover it I found on research that other Win 8 users had encountered the same issues when running the Cleanup Utility.

So, please, any Windows 8 user coming to this thread: do NOT run the AMD Cleanup Utility!

However, if you're on an earlier version of Windows, the steps above may be safe. I guess there's a reason why AMD doesn't include Windows 8 among the supported operating systems for the utility!

@dirtyhumanoids: your screenshot suggests to me that you're on Win 7, so running the utility may be safe. However, something looks odd about your information that is being displayed. What version of the AMD Catalyst Driver are you running? You may wish to go into Control Panel > Remove Programs, uninstall the AMD Catalyst Drivers, reboot your system, then download and install the latest drivers (13.1 or 13.2 Beta). Then delete your Photoshop preferences and restart Photoshop, and see if Photoshop automatically detects your display adapter and activates graphics acceleration. If that doesn't work, but you're not having video issues elsewhere, then you may wish to consider the AMD Cleanup Utility.

Obviously, you really should be getting acceleration with your Radeon 7890.

Hi guys I have a questions, I use illustrator and photoshop and i am going to start learning after effects. I have been looking for a graphic card for a while and i would like to know if this one has a good performance with the video editing.